The Vernon Wells contract will actually help the Yankees’ goal of being below $189 million in payroll for 2014, a source confirmed to ESPNNewYork.com on Monday.

The Daily News first reported the finances.

All the particulars of the money for the deal with the Angels have not yet been finalized, but the Yankees will end up paying somewhere between $12 million and $14 million of the $42 million owed to Wells in the final two years of his contract.

The Yankees will likely end up doling out $10 million or $11 million for 2013 and $2 million or $3 million for 2014.

It is a complicated formula, but, in the end, Wells’ money will either have no impact on the $189 million goal for 2014 or the Yankees will receive a credit. Since Wells’ contract has been traded once before, the Yankees may receive as much as a $2 million savings toward their ’14 luxury tax figure.

O.K., so, Wells will cost the Yankees about eleven mill this year. And, if Mark Teixeira is out for 12 weeks, that means that Vernon Wells is basically playing this season for free, right? (The logic here is that the Yankees will get about $11 million from the WBC to cover Tex’s salary if he is out for 12 weeks.)

Yet, it still doesn’t mean that Wells will help the Yankees on the field this year. It just means that the Yankees got lucky that Tex blew out his wrist while wearing the USA jersey and not when he was down in Tampa.

@ Steve L.:
Why stop there? It’s lucky that Tex’s parents found each other, decided to procreate, and out came our future first basemen.

Your usual point is, the Yanks are lucky when anything good things happen to them. Let’s take that a step further: luck is the residue of design. Is that your ultimate point? Because if that’s the case then, Cashman’s preparation and careful planning put them in this position to think ahead and be ready for this situation. So your main point is that Cash deserves credit here, correct?

It just means that the Yankees got lucky that Tex blew out his wrist while wearing the USA jersey and not when he was down in Tampa.

…which assumes Tex would’ve injured the wrist had he had a normal spring training with the Yanks. He might have been swinging harder than normal, or more often than normal, because of the competition involved in the WBC.

But this explains why the Yanks spent this money on Wells, rather than, say, on Russell Martin. The money was freed up by Tex’ injury (so it wasn’t there when Martin was on the table), AND there are no other big ticket items to spend it on right now, AND they didn’t want to wait to spend it at mid-season because they were afraid the Yanks might’ve have buried themselves too deep in the first couple of months.

Which is not to say I think the Wells trade will work. It MIGHT work, if they have to stones to tell him to hiss off when he complains about not starting vs. RHP, AND he regains his past form vs. lefties. I give that about a 25% chance of happening.

But really, is Wells worse than what they already had for a right-hand hitting outfielder? Especially now that he’s essentially “free”?

But really, is Wells worse than what they already had for a right-hand hitting outfielder? Especially now that he’s essentially “free”?

This becomes the question, now that the seemingly ridiculous has been made a little clearer. I would add that next year (if he’s any good) he also becomes a bench piece. That could come in handy, given that the whole team will be made over in the next two years.

But the answer to the question is: we’ll see. If the change of scenery, Mars, Jupiter and the chicken bones all come into alignment with Uranus, then maybe Wells does okay. But the righties in camp are probably either not ready or no better.

Interesting. Wells has already said he will retire when this contract is up. So, I would think NO. He would need to sign somewhere to get a pick. And, of course, the Yankees could have to make him a qualifying offer – which would be insane.